Like Kats and Dogs
by MagpieDreamer
Summary: Twenty Five years at SPD, as seen by Kat Manx and Doggie Cruger.
1. The First Meating

**Like Kats and Dogs**

AN: Alright. I admit it. Kat Manx, an - at best - _supporting_, fictional character in a TV show for five-eleven year old boys, is currently the dominant voice in my head. (My head being that of a sixteen year old school-girl with ex-hippie parents, a liberal humanst philosophy and an attraction to shiny things). Oh well... I wrote this at about two in the morning last night suffering from insomnia and a sugar over-dose (not quite sure which caused the other). I may well continue it. If I do, it will chart the distinctly dysfunctional yet completely unexplored history of therelationship between Doggie Cruger and Kat Manx, from first meating to the end of SPD (or possiblynext year'scrossover, if I'm still inspired by that point). I'm also interested in doing a little digging into the mind of said feline-esk scientist, and the concept that, surprisingly, no one else has delt with on (that I've seen, anyway): The fact that Kat Manx worked with the SPD ranger's parents. Still, I would greatly be encouraged to write more if I recieved a few reviews denoting interest on the part of my readers. Enjoy! And even if you don't want to read more, leave me a reviw telling me what you think!

Disclaimer: Not mine. Not making any money. Yadda yadda yadda.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

There were no liver spots on her cheeks. He couldn't see them at all. They'd completely faded.

Doggie Cruger shook his head.

"She's too far gone! Find the others. This one wont make it off the planet."

Blood leaking from the eyes. Open soars on her hands, face, ears… radiation poisoning. She'd survived the battle, though the gashes down her sides, burns on her arms, in her clothes, suggested that she'd fought hard through out it, only to be struck down because SPD HQ had been too slow issuing orders to send in the cavalry. She'd maybe been lying here two days, amongst the rubble of a once great city and the bodies of her friends, family, comrades and colleagues, coughing up her own lungs, dying of treatable injuries, while radiation spread steadily through her system, shutting her down from the inside out.

A day, maybe even as little as eight hours sooner in getting here, and she'd have been saveable, along with millions of others who would now perish in this pathetically pointless manner. But the liver spots on her cheeks, a tell-tale sign of health in adult Felinas, were completely invisible; her eyes were glazed; her skin was white as paper and turning blue around the lips and fingers; her wounds were infected and festering; her breathing was raspy; bloody foam was bubbling up around her lips with every outward breath. She was going to die, because a commander somewhere three thousand light years away onEX31 (SPD's tempary basewhile they relocated)hadn't agreed with a term on a piece of paper. One more victim out of millions on yet another planet laid waist to by Grumm and his armies.

Disgusted by the pointlessness of it all, Cruger turned away. He could call for painkillers, place a cyanide pill beneath her tongue, or take off his uniform coat and place it under her head. Anything to ease the pain before an inevitable end came upon that crumpled little body. But it was time wasted that could be spent hauling out those who would live from the wreckage. _Two dead bodies are not worth the peace of a third_, his commander had once said, and he knew the sense in it, though it rankled in his mind.

Then a hand latched onto his ankle.

Soldier's instinct almost made him shoot it's owner without thinking. He was too much on edge. It wasn't unusual for Grumm to leave goons around to ambush any rescue parties sent to his recently concurred worlds. What he saw almost scared him more.

The Felina he'd taken as beyond saving, who _was_ beyond saving, had latched a surprisingly sturdy hand around his boot. Absolute desperation fuelled that grip. He'd seen it before, and he'd see it again. Knuckles so white the bone might well burst through the skin. Her breathing hitched and gurgled. She spat blood, heaved another breath, stared up at him, and he spotted a spark of cold defiance in those bleeding eyes.

"_Help me_."

He didn't know the Felina tongue, but the shrieking clicks that escaped her throat were unlikely to be anything else. What else did you say in that situation? She repeated it, then broke off to heave, vomiting blood and what might well be bits of her own semi-liquidised intestines. She screamed, a rasping, ear-splitting sound, almost too high for the human ear to pick up. She was attempting to tell him something, though she probably knew that her last words were wasted on him. Blood dripped off her fangs and down her chin. She spat, heaved, coughed, shrieked again, and was still.

Cruger watched her chest rattle to a stop. Her grip on his ankle slackened. Her eyes glazed completely.

Trying to keep his breath even, Cruger made to step away, when he felt something wedged against his heel. _What the…_ she'd put something into his boot. Grabbing him hadn't been a last ditch attempt at survival, but a desperate attempt to deposit something important onto his person. He fished into his boot, to find a tiny glass vile, filled with a yellowish liquid. He frowned, holding up the container, looking at the dead Felina woman.

"What are you trying to give me?" He asked, softly, turning the container over in his fingers.

Holding it up to the evening sun, he caught a glint of something in the liquid. Tiny silver particles suspended within it's swirling content. It couldn't be… he upended the vile and looked at the figures etched out in universal numeral code on the bottom.

It was.

"_Commander_!" Cruger spun round, "Commander! _We can save these people_!"

Flinging himself onto his knees as his squad members came running to his side, he hauled the dead Felina female into a sitting position, letting her head fall back, unscrewed the top of the container, and shook two drops loose through the filter, letting them drop between her teethe. Already he was mentally calculating… an average of two minutes to brain death without oxygen for most bipedal life-forms. Could Felinas last longer? He didn't know. This stuff needed aboutone minuteto start working, but she wouldn't be able to breath by herself for another three. One if not both of her lungs was almost certainly completely liquified by now. She'd definitely need an entire body organ transplant within the next half hour. But there were donors sprawled everywhere over these ruined streets. There would be a few who had simply been shot and avoided the radiation turning them to mush from the inside.

"What is it, Cruger?" His commander had arrived, looking irritated.

"This," Cruger held up the vile, "take it, duplicate it, give it to every living victim no matter how far gone they are. It's Menthes serum." Seeing the blank looks he was being given he groaned, "anti-radiation medicine! I've seen it once before and it wasn't working properly. The Felinas have been developing this stuff for centuries. That's why Grumm targeted them. Because he knew they'd finished their research! For Life's sake, what have we got to loose!"

The commander looked about, at his cadets, at the young Canine he knew had recently lost his home, family and wife in a devastating attack on the planet Sirius not two months previously. TheKanine took everything Grumm did to heart.

The felines were a very secretive race. They kept to themselves, and, while it was common knowledge that their entire (not insubstantial) scientific empire had been based around developing a vaccine against and cure for the kind of radiation poisoning that Grumm's weapons left any live victims with, how far that research was along was, understandable, kept very quiet. There was no guarantee that this was the finished product…

Still… if this really was Menthes Serum, it was worth a shot.

"Alright," he nodded, "Birdie, take this stuff back to the ship and have the tech crew replicate it on the double. Now, boy, move!"

"Yes, sir!" The avian squad-man took the serum and ran.

"Everyone, back to your places, start lining up the wounded, sickest first, go by how faded their spots are. Do it!" The other squad-members scattered back across the rubble.

The commander looked down at Cruger, who was still hunched over the body of the Felina who had presumably managed to give him the serum. "Cruger."

"She's going to live, sir."

"Cruger, you know as well as I do that she's long past any need of our help."

"I'll _make_ her live, sir. She's not been dead a minute. I gave it to her quick enough. I _know_ she'll live."

"Let it go, Cruger."

"She'll live, Commander!"

"Doggie, walk away."

"She's going to _live_!"

And she did.

Kat Manx lay curled up on his couch, in the rooms he occupied in SPD headquarters, purring contentedly over a piece of soy-milk chocolate cake (like most felines, she was lactose intolerant; almost all dairy products made her sick;) her feet propped up on Boom's stomach. The technician was snoring peacefully, having fallen asleep on top of his own paper work half an hour previously. She turned over a lab report with her free hand, made a few corrections then flicked it aside to lazily peel another from a file resting on the floor by the sofa. She felt his stare before he realised what he was doing, and glanced over at him curiously.

"What?"  
Cruger shrugged and managed a slight smile, "I was… thinking about the first time we met."  
Kat raised her eyebrows, "you mean, the first time we were introduced, or the first time we… _met_."

"The very first time."

"You mean the time I died?" She raised the matter airily, "right. Why?"

"It's been twenty five years to the day."

Her eyebrows shot up, and she swiftly began calculating something on her fingers, "you're right," she realised, somewhat incredulously, "wow. Doesn't seem that long."

"I suppose for a being with an average life span of seven hundred years, twenty five doesn't mean much," Cruger shook his head.

"Not at all," Kat corrected, firmly, "a person can do a lot in twenty five years. You can have and raise five kits in twenty five years. You can develop accidental gene therapy in twenty five years. You can build morphers, and a career, in twenty five years. You can even learn to love chocolate cake in twenty five years."

Cruger felt his smile grow. "Is that all."

"Mmm," Kat sucked her spoon, "and more, I suppose. Haven't got round to those though, yet."

"Do you remember what I told you when I was trying to keep you awake?" Cruger asked.

"When you were carrying me out of there?" Kat frowned, "something about human customs. Why?"

"I told you that, on Earth, near where I'd been living since my wife died, they have a saying about cats," Cruger told her, "they say they have nine lives. How many have you used up in twenty five years, Kat?"

Kat frowned slightly, considering. "A few, I'll bet. We should tell the rangers. They'll throw us a party."

"That's precisely why I didn't mention it to them," Cruger replied, grimly.

Kat laughed, sounding as he remembered her nearly twenty five years ago, younger and more naive, despite the loss of her home and family. "You're no fun, Doggie Cruger."

"No, I'm not," he agreed, sinking into a chair with a heavy sigh. "As the rangers themselves would say, 'sue me'."

Kat stuck out her tongue at him, and finished off her chocolate cake.

"Do you feel like taking a walk?" Cruger asked her, presently, as he stood and went to the door of his quarters.

Kat delicately lifted her feet from Boom's stomach, "certainly. Where to?"

"Anywhere you want," Cruger offered, then yelped as the feline scientist took a flying leap onto his back.

"For old time's sake," she grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck.

Cruger sighed, "you may recall that those 'old times' were not exactly the most pleasant we've ever experienced together."

"What, you mean when I slept on your couch, crawled around on top of your cupboards, swung on your lampshades, refused to learn English, ate you out of tuna and made you carry me everywhere?" Kat asked, innocently. "Could you blame me? I'd just had almost every internal organ in my body replaced. I needed to keep my strength up and I couldn't walk. And I wasn't staying in that hospital. People kept staring at me."

"Those were doctors, Kat."

She giggled as they headed out of the door, "it's not as if you have much trouble carrying me anywhere anyway, Doggie."

"Tell that to my spine. I swear it hasn't been the same since you first jumped me."

Kat leant her chin on his shoulder, and let him do the walking.


	2. The First Parting

**Like Kats and Dogs**

**Pt Two**

AN: I've decided to run with this fic as far as the inspiration takes me, in an attempt to portray a _realistic_ history for the relationship hinted at between Doggie and Kat in SPD, as well a recount the back-story of the current series as seen through their eyes.

Funky In Fishnet: (loving the penname, by the way) Thanks for your comments! If I can make someone smile when I write, I'm happy. (Alright, that's corny, but true! Where would we be without warm fuzzies?) ;p

BrandonB: Squeeeeeeeeeeee! I'm on a favourites list! -bounces- anyway, thank you! I think there aren't many other fics centering around Kat and/or Cruger because people just aren't as interested in the supporting characters on a show like this. Me, I'm always interested in the characters we know least about... more scope for the writing! I hope you enjoy the next chapter!

masterranger3: Wanna know a secret? -peers around checking for shippers- okay, coasts clear. I'm not much of a Kat/Doggie shipper either. However, I am intrigued by these two characters, whatever their relationship is/was. Mostly I like the idea of exploring Kat's attachment toCruger and how that came about, as well as various other emotional traumas that must have gone on in the twenty odd years leading to the start of the series. Still, enjoy the next chapter, and tell me what you think! (I'm deliberately trying not to ship, actually. Just stick true to what might have happened.)

StarTraveler: Thank you! Be forwarned, I probably wont end up getting these two together. My perogative is staying true to the characters, not writing romance. However, if that ends up coming out of my efforts... so be it. ;) The point is, even though I'm not much of a shipper myself, you will probably enjoy this fic simply because I intend to explore Kat and Cruger's relationship as much as possible, and you'll probably like the next chapter, too. Have fun, and tell me what you think!

Right, that being done...

Disclaimer: Don't own it, yadda yadda yadda...

On with the fic!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"You want me or not, Doggie Cruger?" She stood in his doorway, arms folded, dark clothes shifting in the breeze from the open apartment door, saying she wasn't going to be driven away again.

"Leave it be, cat."

"No."

"Stubborn creature."

"Stubborn old dog, you are. Give me an answer."

"I can't."

"You can. And I'm gonna stand here until you do."

"Kit…"

"They call me Manx," she said it coldly, "down at the academy. A tailless cat."

"Well I'm calling you Kit."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"You named me in their tongue, Doggie Cruger. Now tell me if you want me."

He growled at her, turning away. She hissed her annoyance and drummed a fingers against his door.

"Tell me before I leave. I'll walk out of your life, Doggie Cruger. I'll walk out of your life, and you'll never see me again if you don't want to. But I know you don't want that, so tell me what you _do_ want."

"I don't know, cat!"

"And that's your problem, Cruger. You don't know the first thing you want and you're too damn scared to go for anything you might have a need for! Scared for a memory, for a threat that doesn't even exist!" She started to whine, high-pitched and ear-splitting, breaking into her own tongue. She wasn't yet proficient enough in English to be able to fully express herself properly in it, particularly when her emotions were running high.

"Stop it!" Cruger barked, pained.

She hissed at him, uttering several expletives in her native language.

"You too!" Cruger retorted, glaring.

The Felina struggled to regain control. She'd been prone to fits of temper since arriving on Earth a few months earlier, something her psychologist had attributed to 'delayed post traumatic stress disorder'. Her highly dysfunctional relationship with Cruger apparently wasn't helping matters, but she had refused to allow herself to be separated from him, and, despite himself, he had wanted her to stay. He hadn't realised how lonely he'd been since his wife had died, until he suddenly had someone waiting at home for him to talk to again. Now, on her way to New Tech Academy to get a degree (something she expected to do within only a few months) that qualified her for a job in physics within the local galaxy, she was moving out, but she wasn't going without getting a few things straight.

"You have an odd idea of betrayal, Cruger," she spoke with only the slightest edge to her voice.

"You don't-"

"Don't tell me I don't understand!" Her frustration was almost tangible.

He winced. He knew well enough that she'd lost as much as he had in Grumm's attack. But that wasn't what he'd meant. "I meant that your people don't partner off, cat."

"You think that makes a difference?" Disgust dripped off her voice, "you think because of something my people do I'm completely incapable? The last time I looked I wasn't _my people_, I was _me_, and there are very few of my people left to frown disapprovingly, even if I_ do_ start walking on the 'wild side'. It's called being open to new experiences. You should try it sometime."

"Kitten-"

"And don't call me that! I'm not some pet."

"I'm sorry."

"And stop apologising for things! It makes me feel guilty!"

In spite of himself, Cruger began to laugh. She was a contrary, temper-prone little madam at the best of times. But he liked that. And he didn't want to lose her. For all her faults, for all she drove him crazy sometimes… she'd forced him to take an interest in something and someone outside of his own dark little existence once more, and for that he'd always be grateful. "I cannot stand to lose you, Kit."

She bit her lip, "but you cannot stand to have me either." She looked down, "and round and round we go. I can't stand this, Doggie."

"No," he knew she couldn't. Was he being cruel? Was he being selfish? Her health was yet to fully return. The liver spots on her cheeks were still very pale, and the scars, some still only just scabbed over, still littered her face, hands, arms and legs, predominant for all to see. She still tired easily, couldn't walk long spells on her own, passed out easily, had panic attacks. Staying with him was the sensible solution, at least until she could move about relatively independently for longer than fifteen minutes at a time. But the current situation was killing her, more than the radiation poisoning ever would.

She flexed her fingers, unsheathing her claws, then letting them slide away again. He could hear the way her breathing hitched in her chest, waiting for him to make a move they both knew he never would. She turned, abruptly, striding out of the doorway and down the hall. "Goodbye, Doggie Cruger."

He stood, "Cat."

She wouldn't be called back. He let her go, if only so he wouldn't have to witness the sobs he could already hear coming from her halfway down the stairs.


	3. A Call To Arms

**Like Kats and Dogs**

**Chapter Three: A Call To Arms  
The Second Meeting**

AN: This chapter is less dark than the last two, just because I can only write so much angst before I am forced to revert to my natural fluffy state and write something happier. Thanks for all the reviews, you guys, keep it up! I'm glad I'm appealing to such a broad range of people, from total non-shippers to rampant Sky/Syd fans... hehe. Oh, and I was listening to Tori Amos's 'Ribons Undone' when i wrote this, just to set the mood (if you know the song). Anyway, have fun!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

masterranger3: Thank you! I hope you _do_ continue to enjoy this fic... I looked up your fics but haven't gotten round to reading them yet (school, and our first exams are in about two months so they're piling on the work-load... -moan-) Anyway, I will read them at some point, 'cause they sound good. Though I'm generally not much into Kat/Doggie stuff, I do have a seriouse 'shipper's instinct so there's a danger that any two characters I write I start to 'ship subconsciously. If you feel it going that way, or the characters going OOC, seriously, alert me pronto, and I'll whack myself over the head with SPD episodes until I have a firm grasp on the characters again. ;) That said, bare in mind that I'm taking certainly libertees simply because these guys don't get that much development on the show anyway, as I attempt to add _plausabe_ depths to their characters. Anyway, glad you took the time to leave me such a detailed review and hope you like this chapter as much!

BrandonB: Thanks! Glad you found the interaction so believable (I was worried I was over-doing the angst, which I've read in other PR fandom and find really unbelievable because it's badly written on a show that generally doesn't do 'dark'.) Still, if you think it works, I've done a good job! Did I thank you for adding me to your favourites? Well, anyway, I am now. I read your profile (I like to know who I'm appealing to) and wasglad to see you 'ship Trent/Kira (there aren't enough of us!) Not to mention Tommy/Kat (not enough of us there, either...) Anyway, you're definitey the kind of PR fan I'm trying to write for, so I'm really glad you like this fic. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as you did the last (I turned down the angst for this one, 'cause I can only write so much at a time, but still) enoy!

GargoyleSama: Yay! I really like Boom and Kat's relationship too! Boom so clearly worships the ground Kat walks on, it's just so damn cute! Rest assured, I'll be dealing with Boom's entrance into Kat's life later, and I'm already planning on setting up a few forshadowing-type scenarios before then. Again, I'm wary of 'shipping them because I want to stay as true to the characters as possible, but I definitely want to introduce the uh... 'Boom Factor' into Doggie and Kat's already complicated relationship at some point. In the mean time, enjoy!

StarTraveler: Great! You're not a militant 'shipper! It's so difficult to deal with those people who can't accept that other people might not share their oppinions on which characters should end up with who in fandom. Hehe, but I'm glad that I'm appealing to a broad range of people, reguardless of their 'shipper tendancies (I've got all sorts, Doggie/Kat Kat/Boom Boom/Cruger... ah, well, okay, not so much the last one, but you get the idea... ;D ) Means I'm doing good! And it's so cool to be on someone's 'alert' list! Thanks for your review and I hope you keep enjoying this fic.

Shifter: I'm saving your sanity? What do you need sanity for? Come, descend into madness with me! MWAHAHAHA! -achem- yes. Anyway. Glad to offer you a little relief (I know how you feel). Stay sane, my friend, (how can you leave me reviews if you go nuts? ;p) And enjoy!

Jill: Thank you! I hope you think this chapter is as good.

Silver-Time-Ranger: Thanks! Am I keeping up the good work? Can you tell me after you read this chapter? -hint hint- hehe! Enjoy!

Funky In Fishnet: More warm fuzzies! SQUEEEEEEEEEEE! Yay! This chapter is on the fuzzier side anyway, so I think I'll stand at the door of this fic and hand out the warm fuzzies in handfulls so everyone is happy... -starts singing 'feed the world' and sways back and forth contentedly- um, anyway... glad this is believable to you! It's challenging trying to write Kat, who was already over a century old by this point, but is still probably much younger mentally than she is on the show at the moment. Doggie's a little easier simply because I didn't even bother trying to write him before his wife (supposedly) died, and it's clear that his mentality hasn't changed much since he lost her. So anyway, read on and enjoy!

the real vampire: Thanks! Here's more for you!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_"Watch her run,  
With ribbons undone,  
She's a rose in a lily's cloak,  
She can hide her charms,  
It is her right,  
__There will be time,  
To chase the sun,  
With ribbons undone, _

She runs like a fire does,  
Just picking up daises,  
Comes in for a landing,  
A pure flash of lightening,  
Past alice blue blossoms,  
You follow her laughter,  
And then she'll surprise you,  
Arms filled with lavender."  
-Tori Amos 'Ribbons Undone'

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He spotted her once, in a student café on KO-35 while he was over there on a mission for SPD. Not much more than a glorified paper-chase, but still, got him back out in the field. She was wearing a wide brimmed hat to cover her ears, but hadn't bothered with contacts on the eyes. KO-35's population were already getting used to having aliens among them. He'd heard she was working on the Terra Venture project, engineering the light-speed engines. But she was still technically at school, and apparently enjoying herself, looking almost like any other student, dancing and laughing and plucking with surprising skill at the strings of a guitar with the informal little band that had gathered there.

She didn't see him, and he let her be.

In the three year gap between her leaving for the academy and Doggie finding himself with the unpleasant duty of drafting her back into the SPD, she left him four messages. The first, a month after she left, was an awkward 'hello, hope you're okay.' The second, six months later, a more detailed breakdown of what she was doing, providing him with the means of keeping an eye on her progress (which he had already been doing). The third came over a year and a half later, a second rather awkward 'hello, hope you're okay.' Except that this time he was fairly sure she'd been attempting to tell him something. The forth came barely a week before he was sent out to recruit her. She'd graduated from the academy, top of her class, of course, with full honours (it was the forth time. She'd now done eight degrees, and her professors were categorically banning her from coming back, insisting that she go out and actually do something with her skills).

The street wasn't so much a street as it was a large garden with houses placed at random intervals along it's length. It wasn't difficult to spot the house that must be hers. It had been modelled on the traditional style of accommodation for Felinas, with a door halfway up it's front wall, a set of steps leading down for those of a less feline nature to get to it. The front was rough, covered in footholds and handholds for the occupants to scale it's length. Windows were dotted at seemingly random intervals. The roof was rounded, and growing grass. Ropes, ladders and swings hung off the wings. Such an elaborate set up suggested that she was not the only Felina living within.

He climbed up to the front door, and lingered outside it, wondering what right he had to come here. It had been he who brought her up when the need to develop new morphers was again being debated at SPD headquarters. She alone had the kind of IQ and expertise in genetic physics that was going to be needed in the development of the sort of morphers future SPD rangers would need. It made sense. But it didn't stop him feeling horribly awkward about asking for her help.

"Are you going to stand there all day looking confused, or are you coming in?" The voice was lighter toned than he remembered it, but unmistakably that of his one time room mate.

She was leaning out of a window over his head, chin propped on her hands, elbows resting on the sill. "Heard you coming a mile away," she told him, a smile gracing her lips.

She looked amazingly healthy. More so than he'd ever encountered her before. Her eyes were clear and wide, her skin a gentle off-white, her ears upright and pricked, her liver spots in full colour. Even the scars had faded almost to invisibility. Felinas healed very well, he knew, but somehow he'd expected her to be more like he remembered; riddled with scars, of both the physical and the emotional kind.

"Hello, Kit," he looked up at her.

"Kat," she corrected, blithely. "Call me Kat. Katherine. Katherine Manx. That's what they've christened me here, anyway."

"I see," Cruger watched her twirl a tendril of wild dark hair around one finger. He couldn't remember if it was just her being coy, or if that was what she did when she was distracted. "It's… SPD business. They sent me to talk to you."  
She put her head on one side, "SPD? Interesting. I suppose that means you have to come in, then."

"It would be… ill advised to have such a conversation on your doorstep," Cruger agreed.

She smiled slightly, "the door's unlocked," and disappeared inside.

There was definitely more than one Felina living here, though Kat seemed to be the only one around at the time. He'd only been inside a Felina household once before, when he was little more than a child. His brother had made friends with a young sibling group of them (they were born in litters of around five, and always stayed close to their brothers and sisters) and once Cruger had accompanied his brother when he went to play. What little he knew of their dwellings told him that, usually, whole grown up sibling groups lived together, and any children the women in that sibling group had were raised collectively. They didn't take life partners the way that many other cultures did. Men experienced fatherhood through raising the offspring of their sisters. Their houses were often like rabbit warrens in size and structure, usually with all the residents sleeping in one nest-like room and then having their own quarters elsewhere, with one large communal living and eating room in the middle.

The kitchen, which the door opened into, was actually fairly human looking, probably because this house had been built by Kerovians, who were essentially humans born on another planet. But there were the usual array of hand and footholds to allow anyone who chose to navigate the walls instead of the floor.

Kat dropped out of a hatch in the ceiling, grinning when it became apparent that she'd made him jump.

"Hello, Cruger," she put her head on one side and smiled at him, "take a seat."

He obliged, feeling a little awkward in the neat little space. She went to the sink, occupying herself with putting cutlery away, "you want something to drink?"

"No thank you," he replied.

"Sure?" She ran herself a glass of water and watched him inquisitively over it.

"I'm fine," he assured her, firmly. "I… how have you been, Kat?"

Kat slid into a seat opposite him at the table, setting down her glass to run a finger around it's rim, "well enough. You know I graduated from the academy. Again."

"Yes," Doggie felt himself smile slightly, "I heard."

There was long, awkward pause.

"So," Kat continued to run her finger round the rim of the glass, producing a very quiet, very high-pitched whining sound Doggie was fairly sure only he could hear, "what do the SPD want?"

"New morphers," he replied, bluntly. "Our rangers are being kicked all over the galaxy by Grumm and his armies. We need new suits, new weapons… anything to give us an edge."

"And you think _I_ can give you an edge?" Kat looked distinctly doubtful.

"We have all of our best and brightest working on the problem already," Doggie told her, "Angela Fairweather, Kendrix Morgan, Billy Cranston… they're all drawing blanks. We wont make you if you really don't want to but…"

"But if I don't I'm condemning the galaxy to domination by Grumm," Kat folded her arms.

Cruger rubbed his eyes, feeling a tired. That was a slight over-simplification, but in purely black and white terms,it was looking to be the case. "You are the only person left to us with the kind of expertise needed to create something effective enough to keep Grumm at bay. Everyone else is either dead or on his pay roll."

Kat bit her lip, "I swore I'd stay out of this war, Doggie. You know that."

"I know," he sighed, heavily. Did she_ have_ to look quite so betrayed?

"Now what?" Kat seemed almost to be talking to herself, "weapons creator? Wonderful career choice. I want to _help_ people, not kill the ones who happened to be on the wrong side… I _knew_ I should have gone into medicine… I could always take another degrees, I suppose."

"Kat," Doggie interrupted her monologue, trying very hard not to be amused. She really hadn't changed as drastically as her appearance suggested.

"Do I have to give you an answer _now_?" She asked, looking vaguely irritated.

"No," Cruger shook his head, "but within the week, we will need one."

"Fine," Kat ran a hand through her hair, "there are a few people I have to talk to first."

"I see."

It was an unspoken question. Who, exactly, was she living with?

She looked up at him, "I found my brother."

"Really?" The surprise tasted odd. Kat's family group had been scattered across her planet at the time Grumm had attacked; it seemed they were all working on the same project, with the same boss, and had all been sent on last ditch missions to distribute the finished Menthes serum to various other researchers that day. Kat wasn't even _from_ the particular continent Doggie had found her on. As it was, there had always been the slight possibility that some of her siblings were still live. She was by no means the only survivor to dragged out of the wreckage, and some continents had been slightly less decimated than others… (though the one on which Kat had been found was one of the better off. Some simply hadn't existed anymore). Thankfully, Grumm hadn't, at that point, anyway, managed to create weapons destructive enough to wipe an entire planet out of existence in one go.

Kat herself had consciously given up hope that any of her siblings were still alive while she was recovering, simply because she had neither the emotional nor the physical strength to cope with what would be an extremely harrowing journey, even if one or two of her blood relatives _were_ still alive at the end of it.

"Miguel, he's calling himself," Kat let a smirk touch her lips, "he was always the pretentious one. And my sister; they've been calling her Mossy. Don't ask me why."

"Two," Doggie remarked, unnecessarily.

"Out of seven," Kat sighed, "not bad, I suppose," a bitter smile twisted her features and she looked down.

Doggie didn't comment. He knew the feeling well. What was left was so precious, but it sometimes felt like losing everything would have been better. That way, what _might_ have been wouldn't feel so tantalisingly close.

Lords of Sirius, what right did he have to come here and take her away from the steady rebuilding of her shattered life? The fact that he was stuck in the smoking ruins of his home didn't mean that she had to stay in hers.

On the very edge of his aural field, Doggie caught a noise. A snuffling, a muffled sneeze. Kat had caught it too, her ears already pricked in the direction of a crawling tunnel near the middle of the back wall, leading off somewhere through the house.

A small head suddenly appeared out of it, half hidden behind a comfort blanket held up by long, birch-twig fingers. One bright green eye and a thatch of wild dark hair was visible. It let out a feeble, questioning cry. Doggie had learned some of the Felina tongue from Kat when she had been living with him, in the period of time when she had stubbornly refused to speak Common. That was the cry of a disorientated kit calling for it's mother.

Kat stood up, holding out her arms to let the sleepy child tumble into them, out of the tunnel, as he sucked distractedly on the corner of his blanket. The adult looked back at Doggie apologetically, "I _wanted_ to tell you…"

"I know," Doggie sighed, heavily. He'd expected as much. The most common reason in the universe for an adultto be at home on a working day was the care of a sickly child.

"There's a fever going round the nursery," Kat sighed, stroking her son's wild hair (he stared up at her adoringly), "and Little One here is my smallest. He gets everything."

The young Felina seemed to know he was being discussed, and sat up, peering suspiciously at Doggie. He was about the size of a small, malnourished toddler, but all Felina young were tiny to begin with, and you would never mistake him for a human child. Quite apart from the eyes, the fangs and the ears, he was far neater and better proportioned than the average baby of Cruger's own race. It was quite probable that, in full health, this child would be able to out-manoeuvre a professional athlete if it came down to a fight. Felinas had evolved to be as independent as possible as young as possible. The average baby could walk, talk and feed itself at just six months old, though they held a deep psychological attachment to their mother that would last well into adulthood.

"I see," Doggie watched, feeling some kind of fascination. He'd never had children, though he'd wanted to. It was odd, imagining Kat as a mother, though he supposed that she must be more stable these days. She must have found more than her siblings, he supposed, though he knew that the father was unlikely to be around. He'd said it himself, three years ago: Felinas didn't take partners.

Kat was talking to her son in their language, no doubt attempting to explain to the infant what the strange dog-man was doing in their kitchen. "I should take him back to bed," she glanced at Cruger.

Cruger nodded, "do that. I'll see myself out. You know how to contact us, when you decide."

"Yes," she nodded. She had that troubled look in her eyes, when she wanted to express something, but was having trouble digging up the words outside of her own language. Gently, she set her son down in the mouth of the crawl tunnel he'd appeared from, issuing instructions to go ahead, then hesitated, unsure whether to wait for Cruger to move or take the initiative. Then, being the creature she was, she decided she was tired of waiting for Cruger to handle these moments for her.

She took two steps forward, and hugged him, briefly. "It _is _good to see you, Doggie."

No one had stood that close him since she'd left. "You too, Kat. You too."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_"A look in her eyes,  
__Says the battle's beginning,  
From school she comes home and cries,  
'I don't want to grow up,  
__At last not tonight'."  
-Tori Amos 'Ribbons Undone'_


End file.
